The proposed law adopted on Wednesday at first reading provides for a proportion of at least 30% women in 2027, and 40% in 2030.
Le Monde with AFP
The main majority Senate agrees to impose women’s quotas with large corporate executive positions. The Upper House, later, on Wednesday, October 27, at first reading, a proposal for a law the Republic (LRM) to “accelerate economic and professional equality”, which provides such a device.
“restore equality, it is not to give them a favor (…) is to fix an injustice that nothing can justify,” said Elisabeth Moreno, Minister responsible for equality between women and men.
Brought by the member Marie-Pierre Rixain, the text had been adopted unanimously of the votes cast, in May, by the National Assembly. MPs and senators will now attempt to agree on a common text, otherwise the Assembly will have the last word.
Senators have adopted the proposal to introduce a participation quota of each sex among the executives and the members of the governing bodies of at least 1,000 employees. It provides for a proportion of at least 30% women in 2027, and 40% in 2030.
Financial penalty
In 2030, “within a maximum of two years”, these companies will have to comply with the rule of 40% of senior executives, on pain of seeing “applying a financial penalty”, capped at 1 % of the payroll.
Senators also approved the obligation on companies to publish each year on the Ministry of Labor’s website the gender gaps, but by granting them five years after the publication of the law.
The left has tried without success to lower the threshold of employees from which the companies would be concerned or to shorten the deadlines.
This text is presented ten years after the adoption of the Copé-Zimmermann law, which imposed 40% of women in business boards.
For the rapporteur Laurence Garnier (Republicans, LR), if this feminization “has had very positive effects, it did not result in significant progress in the distribution of positions on accountability”.
“Fight gender bias”
“The quotas worked but did not run the runoff”, honored the Centrist President of the Women’s Rights delegation, Annick Billon. “There is today only 25% of women in the executive committees” of the 120 largest listed companies, said M me Moreno.
The text also includes “mixed objectives” in support for BPIFRANCE public bank companies. The Senate adopted an amendment from M me Botto to impose the presence of at least 40% women in the Bpifrance Investment Committees by 2027.
It also aims to “combat gender biases” in professional choices, thanks to an “index of equality” in the institutions of the superior and more mix of juries. It provides “the obligation” to pay pay or social benefits on a bank account “whose employee is the holder or the coder”.
The bill is also aimed at mothers raising their children alone, through the setting up of reserved crib training and places.
However, the Senate has changed the article to facilitate access to women’s teleworking at the end of pregnancy. It now provides that the employer will be entitled to refuse the request if the occupied functions can not be made remotely. “Disappointed”, the left has refrained on this text.